{"id":461889,"date":"2026-09-12T19:34:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461889\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T19:34:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T19:34:23","slug":"how-popular-is-your-cats-name-in-san-francisco-search-the-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461889\/","title":{"rendered":"How popular is your cat’s name in San Francisco? Search the data"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Chronicle published a weeklong series<\/a> of data stories about San Francisco’s dogs in June, I heard an uproar from our colleagues with cats. “Where is the cat version?” I was asked repeatedly.<\/p>\n

Well, here it is.<\/p>\n

The Chronicle obtained name data for more than 8,000 cats registered in the city since 2015 through Animal Care and Control<\/a>. The data include each cat’s name, along with its color, breed and registered ZIP code.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike dogs, cats are not legally required to be registered. The department said that the vast majority\u00a0of registrations are for\u00a0cats that were adopted from their shelter, which include a\u00a0$19 lifetime cat license in the adoption fee<\/a>. A handful of individuals each year also\u00a0purchase registrations, usually when a landlord requires it before renting to someone with a cat.<\/p>\n

We don’t know how many cats actually live domestically in San Francisco, but we are confident that 8,000 is just a small fraction, and not enough to faithfully analyze where cats are most geographically concentrated or which breeds are more popular.<\/p>\n

But we can tell you about names.<\/p>\n

Luna is the most popular cat name among those registered, just as it is among dogs<\/a>. The second-most-common name is Leo (perhaps a nod to their distant cousin, the lion), followed by Charlie and Max.<\/p>\n

Search for your cat’s name in the table below to see how popular it is among registered cats in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Cat names are often inspired by a kitten’s appearance, or fall into categories like nature and food.<\/p>\n

Daisy was the most common plant-inspired name, with 15 felines named after the flower. Other popular nature-themed names included Lily and Blossom. Cats also were named after food, including Pepper and Mochi, and places, like Shasta and Francisco.<\/p>\n

Some kittens appear to be named for their fur\u00a0color, with names such as Midnight, Shadow and Smokey suggesting darker coats, and Ginger and Pumpkin suggesting orange ones.<\/p>\n

Cats are often considered regal animals, and the names in the dataset reflect that. Among these nobly named cats are Reginald Freckles, Prince Fluffington, Precious The Cat, and Fuzzy Fuzzington III.<\/p>\n

Here are a few more of our favorite standouts:<\/p>\n

Cats named after celebrities: Cher, Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Tom Hanks and Oprah<\/p>\n

Cats who were knighted, at least in name: Sir Purrsalot, Sir Squeaks-A-Lot, Sir Duke, Sir Elton, Sir Isaac and Sir Nugget<\/p>\n

Cats whose names involve a pun:\u00a0Catzilla, Meowly Cyrus, Kitty Perry, Purrcy, Catniss Everdeen and Romeow<\/p>\n

Subscribe<\/p>\n

There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at How popular is your cat’s name in San Francisco? Search the data<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Chronicle published a weeklong series of data stories about San Francisco’s dogs in June, I heard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[182055,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-461889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-cat39s-name","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}